Simon King - Understanding Industrial Design: Principles for UX and Interaction Design

Introduction

Historical background on Industrial and Interaction Design

Throughout the last century, the discipline of Industrial Design has refined an understanding of how to design physical products for people. More recently, as computation and network connectivity extend beyond the screen, Interaction Designers and UX professionals also find themselves addressing design problems in the physical world. Although the context is new, much can be learned by looking to the long-standing principles of Industrial Design. Technology evolves rapidly, but the underlying qualities that define the products we love have not changed.

In this book, we will look at ten principles of Industrial Design that can inspire new ways of approaching UX challenges, both on-screen and in the physical world. Each principle will be explored through numerous product examples, both historical and contemporary, and related to present or near-future Interaction Design challenges.

This chapter will provide a brief grounding in the history of Industrial and Interaction Design. We will cover key people and moments in each discipline, highlighting pivotal events and noting points of divergence and convergence. The history of personal computing will be used to trace advances in Interaction Design, with particular attention given to the virtual or physical nature of different computing platforms. Additional background on Industrial Design is interspersed throughout the book in conjunction with the examples that illuminate each principle.

For most of history, when people needed a particular object, they either created it themselves or found someone to make it for them. Individuals may have specialized in their production, such as shoemakers or carpenters, but their output was still largely a unique creation.

There is evidence that generalized fabrication was used to standardize crossbows and other weaponry as early as the 4th century BC in China. However, it was the rapid improvement of manufacturing capabilities during the Industrial Revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries that signaled the radical shift to mass production of identical goods. For the first time, the act of design became separated from the act of making.

Driven by this change in technology, the field of Industrial Design emerged to specialize in the design of commercial products that appealed to a broad audience and could be manufactured at scale. In contrast to the craftsmen of the past, these designers were challenged with meeting the needs of a large population, balancing functionality, aesthetics, ergonomics, durability, cost, manufacturability, and marketability.

The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) describes Industrial Design as a professional service that optimizes function, value, and appearance for the mutual benefit of both user and manufacturer. It is the study of form and function, designing the relationship between objects, humans, and spaces. Most commonly, Industrial Designers work on smaller scale physical products, the kind you buy and use every day, rather than larger scale complex environments like buildings or ships.

Whether you realize it or not, Industrial Design is all around you, supporting and shaping your everyday life. You are likely to recognize numerous examples cited throughout this book, perhaps from your childhood, your office, or even sitting next to you as you read this. The mobile phone you are fidgeting with, the clock on your wall, the coffee maker brewing in your kitchen, and the chair you are sitting on. Everything you see, touch, and are surrounded by was designed by someone, and thus influenced by Industrial Design.

Throughout the 20th century, along with balancing the needs of the user and manufacturer, differences in politics and culture were evident in the design of objects. A rising consumer culture in the post-WWII period meant that manufactured goods doubled as a cultural proxy, intertwining national pride and economic reinvention. Along with regional differences, numerous philosophical and stylistic periods created distinct and recognizable eras within Industrial Design, including the Bauhaus school, Art Deco, Modernism, and Postmodernism.

On a more individual level, there are many famous Industrial Designers who have had an outsized influence on the history of the discipline. Raymond Loewy, a French-born American, is often referred to as the Father of Industrial Design. Loewy is widely considered to have revolutionized the field by pioneering the role of designer as consultant, working for a wide variety of industries and mediums.

Loewy designed everything from streamlined pencil sharpeners, Coca-Cola vending machines, Studebaker automobiles, and NASA spacecraft interiors. He brought design into the mainstream business spotlight, gracing the cover of Time magazine in October of 1949, where they noted that he made products irresistible at a time when nobody really wanted to pay for anything. Loewy intertwined culture, capitalism, and style, establishing a template for how design and business could be mutually beneficial.

Henry Dreyfuss is another famous American Industrial Designer whose work and influence from the mid-20th century are still felt today. Among his iconic designs are the Honeywell T87 thermostat, the Big Ben alarm clock, the Western Electric 500 desk telephone, and the Polaroid SX-70 camera.

Figure 1.x Henry Dreyfuss measurement image

Dreyfuss was renowned not only for his attention to formal details, but his focus on the users needs. He founded the field of ergonomics and pioneered research into how human factors should be considered and incorporated into Industrial Design. After retiring, this focus on anthropometry and usability led him to author two seminal books: Designing for People in 1955 and The Measure of Man in 1960. His interest in universal accessibility extended to graphics as well, as evidenced by Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols, in which Dreyfuss catalogs and promotes the use of internationally recognizable symbols over written words.

Dreyfuss felt that well-designed, mass-produced goods constitute a new American art form and are responsible for the creation of a new American culture. He promoted this approach through his own work, but also more broadly in his role as a founding member of the American Society of Industrial Design. In 1965 he became the first president of the IDSA.

Along with the needs of business and users, the history of Industrial Design has been strongly shaped by the introduction of new technologies, which present an opportunity to redesign and improve products. Industrial Design has always been a conduit for innovation, translating the latest discoveries of science to meet the needs of everyday people.

Figure 1.x Composite image of chairs highlighted in text below

Take for an example the humble chair, a ubiquitous object that has become a laboratory for variation in form and materials. shows four chairs, each highlighting a shift in the possibilities of material use and manufacturing capability.

The No. 18 Thonet chair (1876), was an evolution of experimentation begun by Michael Thonet, with this variation released after his death in 1971. Thonet pioneered a new process of bending beech wood to reduce the number of parts involved, simplifying and strengthening the chair while increasing efficiency in shipping and assembly. The aesthetic was influenced by the technology, with generous curves honestly reflecting the bent wood process.